973.7L63 M2739 
 
 B8Sch3a 
 
 Schleuter, Herman 
 
 Abraham Lincoln and the Working Class , 
 Ten Cent Pocket Series No. 159 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 
TEN CENT POCKET SERIES NO. 159 
 Edited by E. Ha ideman- Julius 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 and the 
 
 Working Class 
 
 Herman SchUuter 
 
 HALDEMAN-JUUUS COMPANY 
 GIRARD, KANSAS 
 
N 
 
APPEAL POCKET SERIES NO. 159 
 Edited by E. Haldeman-Julins 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 and the 
 
 Working Class 
 
 Herman Schleuter 
 
 APPEAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 GIRARD, KANSAS 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE WORKING 
 CLASS. 
 
 1. The English Workingmen and the Civil 
 War. 
 
 Of the European countries, it was especially 
 England that was affected by the outbreak 
 of the Civil War. As we have seen, England 
 was connected with the Southern States by a 
 bond of common interests. Its textile indus- 
 try, which had reached its highest develop- 
 ment towards the close of the fifties, needed 
 the raw cotton of the cultivation of which th« 
 Southern States possessed a monopoly. The 
 latter, owing to the institution of slavery, 
 were interested in the importation of English 
 products free of duty, while the young manu- 
 facturing industry of the North favored a 
 protective policy which found actual expres- 
 sion in the national tariff laws. It was con- 
 sequently in the interest of the English middle 
 class that the Southern States should form 
 an independent confederacy with tariff regu- 
 lations of its own which should grant England 
 undisturbed free trade. Under such an ar- 
 rangement the South could supply England 
 with the raw cotton which was so necessary to 
 it, and English manufacturers could export 
 their industrial products of all kinds to the 
 Southern States, free of duty, and without 
 ^jo amssa-id aqi -rapnfl. •uoi;i^aduioo jo itsbj 
 
4 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 these interests the early Abolitionist impulses 
 of the ruling class in England disappeared, 
 and English intervention in favor of the South- 
 ern States was advocated in these circles. 
 
 Besides England, France also was interested 
 in the events taking place in the United 
 States. Textile industry was of course far 
 less developed in the Second Empire than in 
 Great Britain, and cotton did not play as im- 
 portant a role in French politics as in English. 
 Nevertheless, French textile workers were 
 also affected by the scarcity of cotton and 
 suffered severely from the crisis produced 
 thereby. But although their distress was due 
 to the War of Secession, like their English 
 comrades they stood by the Union and op- 
 posed Negro slavery, and by no means shared 
 their ruler's bias in favor of the Southern 
 slaveholders. On the contrary, they took a 
 very decided stand against them. 
 
 It was, however, not the part which the cot- 
 ton famine and all it involved played in France 
 that drove the French Emperor to sympathize 
 with the South. Louis Napoleon was filled 
 with the lust of conquest and aggrandizement. 
 He had designs upon Mexico that could scarce- 
 ly be realized if the United States remained in- 
 tact, and for this reason he sided with the 
 Southern States. He would gladly have made 
 the attempt to break the blockade of the 
 Southern ports proclaimed by the Washing- 
 ton Government, and he would even have di- 
 rectly intervened in favor of the South, had 
 he not feared thereby to involve France in 
 conflicts of far-reaching consequences. For 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 5 
 
 this reason, he desired the co-operation of 
 England in this enterprise, and he did his best 
 to obtain it. 
 
 In England the government was far more 
 dependent on public opinion than in France. 
 If public opinion in Great Britain had really 
 demanded the recognition of the Southern Con- 
 federacy, if it had demanded active interven- 
 tion in its favor, the Government would only 
 too willingly have obeyed the pressure. But 
 in the face of the public opinion emphatically 
 opposed to all intervention on the part of Eng- 
 land in the affairs of America, the Government 
 dared not pursue a contrary course. The de- 
 cision consequently lay with England. 
 
 Only a few years had passed since England, 
 on the occasion of the visit of Harriet Beecher 
 Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, the 
 book which graphically described the suffer- 
 ings of Negro slaves, melted in sentimental 
 approval, especially since the author was the 
 honored guest in the most exclusive circles of 
 the English nobility. After the outbreak of 
 the Civil War not a trace of this sentiment 
 remained in the hearts of the English middle 
 class. "Today [18621 we find only here and 
 there one among the Englishmen who does not 
 fanatically side with the slave States, and that 
 one probably has not the courage to express 
 his opinions"* This was true as far as the 
 
 •Lothar Bucher: t)ie Londoner Industrieausstel- 
 lung von 1862. Berlin, 1863, p. 155. Bucher evi- 
 dentlv considered only the ruling class as "English- 
 men." 
 
6 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 ruling classes were concerned, and they indeed 
 tried their best to persuade the Government 
 to intervene in behalf of the South. They ar- 
 ranged labor demonstrations and meetings de- 
 claring in favor of the South and of open hos- 
 tilities against the North for the purpose of 
 showing that these sentiments had the backing 
 of English "public opinion." But under the 
 influence of persons, many of whom subse- 
 quently belonged to the General Council of the 
 International Workingmen's Association, the 
 workingmen of England offered the most de- 
 termined opposition to the attempt of forcing 
 them into demonstrations favoring the slave- 
 holders. English workingmen had themselves 
 become only too well acquainted with slavery 
 to espouse its support in one of its most aggra- 
 vated forms. 
 
 The manufacturers now resorted to intimi- 
 dation to compel the workingmen to join in the 
 cry for war. Starvation, that ever ready 
 weapon in the hands of the middle class, was 
 to force the workingmen of England to de- 
 clare for slavery in America and thereby ena- 
 ble the Government to say that public opinion 
 demanded its hostile intervention in behalf of 
 the South. The Civil War, and especially the 
 blockade of the southern ports by Northern 
 forces, had created a scarcity of cotton in Eng- 
 land which, by the way, was not altogether un- 
 welcome to the manufacturers. For there 
 had been an overproduction in the cotton in- 
 dustry of England in I860. "Its effects were 
 still felt during the years immediately follow- 
 ing. ..... The demand for labor had in con- 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 7 
 
 sequence already been decreased here [in Black- 
 burn, where in 1860 tnere were 30,000 mechan- 
 ical looms], months before the effects of the 
 cotton blockade made themselves felt. .. . 
 The stock on hand [of the manufacturers] of 
 course rose in price as long as it lasted, and 
 the alarming depreciation which ordinarily in- 
 evitably accompanies such crises was thus 
 avoided."* 
 
 A temporary closing of factories thus sent 
 up the prices of the accumulated commodities, 
 a situation by no means deprecated by the 
 cotton lords, especially since they cherished 
 the hope that starvation would speedily cause 
 the workingmen to adopt the views of the 
 manufacturers in regard to the Civil War in 
 America. So the textile factories in the north 
 of England were shut down. More than half 
 of the looms and spindles were idle. The 
 wages of the spinners and weavers who con- 
 tinued to be employed were artificially and 
 forcibly reduced in a manner which literally 
 led to starvation. The manufacturers deliber- 
 ately increased the misery into which the work- 
 ingmen had been thrown by the scarcity of 
 cotton, hoping thus to drive them to despair 
 and to demand the Government's intervention 
 in the American troubles. For, as the mid- 
 dle-class organs declared, the intervention of 
 England would put an end to their misery. 
 
 And this misery of the workingmen, especi- 
 ally in the textile districts of Lancashire, was 
 
 *Report on Factories. October, 1862, pp. 28-29. 
 Quoted by Karl Marx: Kapital, III., 1, p. 106. 
 
8 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 indeed alarming. In 1863, when conditions had 
 already somewhat improved, the weekly wages 
 of weavers and spinners amounted to 3s. 4d. 
 and 5s. Id. Despite this low rate, these wages 
 Were still further reduced, particularly by 
 fines. In 1862 weavers' wages ranged from 
 2s. 6d per week up. 
 
 "No wonder that, in some parts of Lan- 
 cashire, a kind of famine fever broke out.* 
 .... But the working-people had to suffer 
 not only from the experiments of the manufac- 
 turers inside the mills, and of the municipali- 
 ties outside; not only from reduced wages 
 and absence of work, from want and from 
 charity, and from the eulogistic speeches of 
 Lords and Commons. Unfortunate- females 
 who, in consequence of the cotton famine, were 
 at its commencement thrown out of employ- 
 ment, and have thereby become outcasts of 
 society, and now, though trade has revived 
 and work is plentiful, continue members of 
 that unfortunate class, and are likely to con- 
 tinue so. There are also in the borough 
 more youthful prostitutes than I have known 
 for the last 25 years."* 
 
 The workingmen of England were starving 
 with exemplary patience. They saw their 
 daughters drift into a life of shame while 
 hunger-typhus decimated their own ranks, but 
 they would not yield to the demands of the bru- 
 tal factory lords. Not only did they refuse 
 
 •Marx: Capital, L, p. 283. 
 
 •Report on Factories. October 31, 1865. Quoted 
 by Marx: Capital, I., p. 283. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 9 
 
 to fall into line with the wishes of their mas- 
 ters and declare themselves in favor of the 
 South, but on the contrary they declared them- 
 selves as distinctly against such a policy. The 
 workingmen of England never had better 
 leaders than at this period, and on these lead- 
 ers' advice they espoused the cause of the abo- 
 lition of Negro slavery and protested against 
 the intervention of the Government in favor 
 of the South. 
 
 Hardly had Lincoln, after more than a year 
 of cautious dealing with the slavery question, 
 intimated that the War of Secession might be 
 transformed into a war of Negro emancipation, 
 than the workingmen of England, in hundreds 
 of public meetings all over the country, in all 
 industrial sections and large cities, hailed this 
 move with enthusiasm and demanded the ini- 
 tiation of energetic measures against slavery 
 and the slaveholders. In vain were the sneers 
 with which the English ruling class com- 
 mented on the early defeats of the Union army, 
 in vain was the hypocritical attitude of Glad- 
 stone and his colleagues in the Government 
 who sought to disguise their secret desire for 
 intervention by the declaration that the Union 
 could never suppress the Rebellion and that 
 the Civil War meant only useless and aimless 
 bloodshed. Cheerfully, even enthusiastically, 
 the English workingmen bore starvation and 
 misery, and protested more and more loudly 
 against Negro slavery and against the in- 
 tervention of their Government in favor of 
 the Southern rebels. 
 
 In the north of the country, in the cotton 
 
10 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 districts, where the manufacturers attempted 
 to coerce their employees by starvation, one 
 of the active agitators in favor of the Union 
 was Ernest Jones, the champion and poet of 
 the Chartist movement. His eloquence was ir- 
 resistible, and his speeches against the slave- 
 holders were so impressive that the towns of 
 Ashton and Rockdale had them printed and 
 circulated at their own expense. When Jonea, 
 before a crowded mass meeting at Blackburn, 
 surrounded by the hostile local manufacturers 
 on the platform, exclaimed. "Why did the 
 South secede?" one of the latter replied, "For 
 free trade," whereupon the speaker instantly 
 retorted, "Free trade in what? Free trade 
 in the lash — free trade in the branding iron — 
 free trade in chains."* 
 
 The applause which broke forth from the 
 assembled workingmen need not be described. 
 The glowing eloquence of Jones contributed 
 its share in inspiring the starving textile work- 
 ers of Lancashire to persist in their position. 
 
 Let us compare now with the heroism of the 
 workingmen of England the contemptible hy- 
 pocrisy of the middle class and its leaders. 
 The same Gladstone who declared the attempts 
 of the North to suppress the rebellion of the 
 slaveholders to be futile, and who only waited 
 for an opportunity to bring about an inter- 
 vention of England in favor of the Southern 
 States, this same Gladstone declared in a 
 speech that the whole history of the Christian 
 
 •Frederick Leary: Ernest Jones. London, 188: 
 p. 72. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 11 
 
 church could not furnish so brilliant an ex- 
 ample of Christian resignation as that of the 
 workingmen of Lancashire.t Of course, this 
 "Christian resignation" and the exemplary 
 patience of these workingmen were easily ex- 
 plained. Mr. Gladstone himself would have 
 them, had they become impatient, imprisoned 
 and shot to pieces amid the applause of the 
 manufacturers, who were responsible for all 
 the misery. 
 
 In New York a committee was formed for 
 the purpose of collecting money for the starv- 
 ing spinners and weavers in the north of Eng- 
 land and thus alleviating their misery. The 
 "suffering factory workers" of Blackburn 
 addressed a letter to this committee and "to 
 the inhabitants of the United States" beseech- 
 ing them to furnish the means for their emi- 
 gration to the United States. But the starv- 
 ing workingmen of the north of England were 
 of far greater use to the Northern capitalists 
 by remaining where they were and continu- 
 ing to starve and heroically to protest against 
 the machinations of their masters than by 
 coming to the United States. So money was 
 indeed sent to relieve their immediate distress, 
 but Brother Jonathan lent a deaf ear to their 
 entreaties for emigration on" a large scale. 
 
 The workingmen of England could count 
 even less upon the encouragement of the rul- 
 ing class of their own country in their plans 
 for emigration. The great mass of the textile 
 
 fBucher, pp. 156-57. 
 
12 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 workers was indeed without employment at the 
 time, but the manufacturers desired to retain 
 the skilled laborers until they should need 
 them again. On March 24, 1863, a manufac- 
 turer declared in the London Times: 
 
 "Encourage or allow the working-power 
 to emigrate, and what of the capitalists? . . . 
 Take away the cream of the workers, and 
 fixed capital will depreciate in a great degree, 
 and the floating will not subject itself to a 
 struggle with the short supply of inferior la- 
 bor We are told the workers wish it 
 
 [emigration]. Very natural it is that they 
 
 should do so Reduce, compress the 
 
 cotton trade by taking away its working-power 
 and reducing their wages expenditure, say one 
 fifth, or five millions, and what then would 
 happen to the class above, the small store- 
 keepers, and what of the rents — the cottage 
 rents? Trace out the effects up- 
 ward to the small farmer, the better house- 
 holder, and the land-owner, and say 
 
 if there could be any suggestion more suicidal, 
 to all classes of the country, than by enfeeb- 
 ling a nation by exporting the best of its man- 
 ufacturing population, and destroying the 
 . value of some of its most productive capital 
 and enrichment"* 
 
 The manufacturers' cry of despair found will- 
 ing ears. The emigration of the workingmen 
 was prevented. "Parliament did not vote a 
 single farthing in aid of emigration, but simply 
 passed some acts empowering the municipal 
 
 'Marx: Capital, I., pp. 362-363. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 13 
 
 corporations to keep the operatives in a half- 
 starved state — i. e., to exploit them at less 
 than the normal wages."* 
 
 The municipalities ordered public works. 
 The unemployed were set to work on drain- 
 age, roads, stone cutting, paving, etc., and 
 drew relief from the local authorities. This 
 action virtually amounted to a relief of the 
 manufacturers, whose skilled hands were kept 
 in the country. Thus "the manufacturer, in 
 secret understanding with the Government, 
 prevented emigration as far as possible, partly 
 in order to have instantly available their cap- 
 ital which consisted in the flesh and blood of 
 these workmen, and partly in order to be sure 
 of the rent which these workmen paid them."t 
 
 Many of the manufacturers owned the houses 
 in which the workingmen employed by them 
 were living. Rent could not be paid during 
 the time there was no work. The unpaid 
 rent would have been a pure loss if the work- 
 ingmen had succeeded in realizing their plan 
 for emigration. Another reason which induced 
 the manufacturers to oppose the scheme with 
 all the means at their disposal was the fact 
 that it offered the workingmen an opportunity 
 to escape from their wretched conditions. 
 
 The heroic attitude of the textile workers of 
 England during the Civil War in America con- 
 stitutes one of the most glorious pages in the 
 history of the working class and must there- 
 
 *Marx; Capital, I., p. 364. 
 
 tMarx: Kapital, III., I., pp. 111-115. 
 
14 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 fore be emphasized here. They suffered, 
 starved and even died for the cause of Negro 
 emancipation in America. And yet a little 
 less patience would in this case have made 
 the workingmen even more heroic. But the 
 spirit of the Chartists had passed, and the 
 workingmen of England were now great only 
 in passive resistance. The perfidy of the rul- 
 ing class never challenged instant active re- 
 sistance more than did the conduct of the 
 English manufacturers and the English gov- 
 ernment at the time of the Civil War. 
 
 The meetings protesting against a war in 
 favor of the Southern States had in the mean- 
 time been continued. It was especially during 
 the late winter of 1862 and of 1863 that one 
 such meeting followed another. Above all 
 others the workingmen of London began to be 
 aroused. The trade unions of the metropolis 
 called a meeting at St. James Hall for March 
 26th, which was of special importance, and 
 the declarations of which were recognized as 
 the expression of English working class opin- 
 ion. At this meeting a prominent part was 
 played by W. R. Cremer, then a cabinet-maker, 
 subsequently a member of the General Coun- 
 cil of the International Workingmen's Asso- 
 ciation, and still later one of the champion* 
 of the international peace movement. John 
 Bright Was in the chair, and among the 
 speakers were John Stuart Mill and Prof. E. 
 S. Beesly. In an address to Abraham Lincoln 
 which was drawn up by this monster meeting 
 this passage occurs: 
 
 "Though we have felt proud of our country 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 15 
 
 yet have we ever turned with glowing 
 
 admiration to your great Republic, where a 
 higher political and social freedom has been 
 established." 
 
 And John Bright declared: 
 
 "I am persuaded that the more per- 
 fect the friendship that is established between 
 the people of England and the free people of 
 America, the more you will find your path 
 of progress here made easy for you, and the 
 more will social and political liberty advance 
 among us."* 
 
 Lord Palmerston, then at the head of the 
 English Government, was about to declare 
 war against the Union. According to the 
 testimony of Karl Marx it was this monster 
 meeting of the English trade unions, together 
 with the general attitude of the English work- 
 ing class in the matter, that prevented him 
 from carrying out his intention. The North- 
 ern States of America have to thank the work- 
 ing class of England that at that trying period 
 in their conflict with the South they were not 
 involved in an additional war with England, 
 and perhaps also with France, which would 
 have seriously imperilled the existence of the 
 Union. 
 
 *Henry Bryan Binns: Abraham Lincoln. Lon- 
 don, 1907. 
 
16 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 2. Abraham Lincoln and the Workingmen 
 of England. 
 
 Near the end of September, 1862, Lincoln 
 issued a proclamation to the effect that on 
 January 1, 1863, he would declare free all 
 slaves in those States which should then be in 
 rebellion against the United States and re- 
 fuse to lay down their arms. 
 
 It was natural for the ruling classes of the 
 South to ignore this proclamation. The South- 
 ern States had been enabled to maintain a few 
 good privateers for injuring Northern Com- 
 merce, aided and encouraged therein mainly 
 by England, its nobility, shipbuilders and mer- 
 chants, with the Government's tacit approval. 
 The slave-holders had every reason to expect 
 that the English ruling classes would lend the 
 Confederacy still further assistance. 
 
 But as we have seen, the English working 
 class put in its veto here. The proclamation 
 by Lincoln of his intention to abolish slavery 
 by January 1st called forth great rejoicing; 
 and although there was heard here and there 
 a note of disappointment because the abolition 
 of slavery was put forth as a war measure 
 and not as an unconditional condemnation of 
 slavery on principle, great demonstrations of 
 workingmen took place, alike in the north and 
 the south of England. In meetings at Lon- 
 don and at Manchester it was resolved to 
 send an address to President Lincoln express- 
 ing the thanks of the English workingmen for 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 the Emancipation Proclamation and encour- 
 aging him in taking still more decisive steps. 
 Both meetings took place December 31, 1862. 
 The address adopted by the London meeting 
 read as follows: 
 
 "The Workingmen of London to the President 
 of the United States of America. 
 
 "To His Excellency, Abraham Lincoln, Presi- 
 dent of the United States of America. 
 
 "Sir: We who offer this address are En- 
 glishmen and workingmen. We prize as our 
 dearest inheritance, bought for us by the blood 
 of our fathers, the liberty we enjoy — the liber- 
 ty of free labor on the free soil. We have 
 therefore, been accustomed to regard with ven- 
 eration and gratitude the founders of the great 
 republic in which the liberties of the Anglo- 
 Saxon race have been widened beyond all the 
 precedents of the old world, and in which there 
 was nothing to condemn or to lament but the 
 slavery and degradation of men guilty only of 
 a colored skin or an African parentage. We 
 have looked with admiration and sympathy 
 upon the brave, generous and untiring efforts 
 or a large party in the Northern States to de- 
 liver the Union from this curse and shame. 
 We rejoiced, sir, in your election to the Presi- 
 dency, as a splendid proof that the principles 
 of universal freedom and equality were aris- 
 ing to the ascendant. We regarded with ab- 
 horrence the conspiracy and rebellion by which 
 it was sought at once to overthrow the su- 
 
IS LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 premacy of a government based upon the most 
 popular suffrage in the world, and to perpet- 
 uate the hateful inequalities of race. We have 
 ever heard with indignation the slander that 
 ascribed to England sympathy with a rebellion 
 of slaveholders, and all proposals to recognize 
 in friendship a confederacy that boasts of 
 slavery as its cornerstone. We have watched 
 with the warmest interest the steady advance 
 of your policy along the path of emancipation; 
 and on this eve of the day on which your proc- 
 lamation of freedom takes effect, we pray God 
 to strengthen your hands, to confirm your no- 
 ble purpose, and to hasten the restoration of 
 that lawful authority which engages, in peace 
 or war, by compensation or by force of arm, 
 to realize the glorious principle on which your 
 constitution is founded — the brotherhood, free- 
 dom, and equality of all men."* 
 
 On the same day when the workingmen of 
 London in mass meeting assembled framed 
 the above address, the workingmen of Man- 
 chester held a meeting for the same purpose. 
 No less than 6,000 persons were present in 
 the hall, the largest of the city. The address 
 adopted here was sent by the Mayor of Man- 
 chester by special messenger to the American 
 Minister at London, Charles Francis Adams. 
 The importance which the American Minister 
 attached to this manifestation of the working- 
 men may be gathered from the letter with 
 which he forwarded the address to Secretary 
 
 "Senate Documents. Washington, 1863. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 19 
 
 of State Seward, in Washington. This letter 
 declared: 
 
 "This meeting is in every respect a most 
 remarkable indication of the state of popular 
 sentiment in Great Britain. It will doubtless 
 make a strong impression elsewhere, and, if 
 duly followed up, may have the effect of re- 
 storing, in a degree, the amicable feeling be- 
 tween the two countries."* 
 
 The address, whose significance was truly 
 set forth by this letter of the minister, read as 
 follows : 
 
 "Address to the Workingmen of Manchester 
 to His Excellency, 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln, President of the United 
 States of America. 
 
 "As citizens of Manchester, assembled at 
 the Free Trade Hall, we beg to express our fra- 
 ternal sentiments towards you and your coun- 
 try. 
 
 "We rejoice- in your greatness, as an out- 
 growth of England, whose blood and language 
 you share, whose orderly and legal freedom 
 you have applied to new circumstances, over 
 a region immeasurably greater than our own. 
 We honor your free States as a singularly 
 happy abode for the working millions where 
 industry is honored. One thing alone has, 
 in the past, lessened our sympathy with your 
 country and our confidence in it; we mean 
 
 'Senate Documents. Washington, 1863. 
 
20 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 the ascendancy of politicians who not merely 
 maintained Negro slavery, but desired to ex- 
 tend and root it more deeply. Since we have 
 discerned, however, that the victory of the 
 free North in the war which has so sorely 
 distressed us as well as afflicted you, will 
 shake off the fetters of the slave, you have 
 attracted our warm and earnest sympathy. 
 
 "We joyfully honor you, as the President, 
 and the Congress with you, for the many de- 
 cisive steps towards practically exemplifying 
 your belief in the words of your great foun- 
 ders: 'All men are created free and equal.' 
 
 "You have procured the liberation of the 
 slaves in the district around Washington, and 
 thereby made the centre of your federation 
 visibly free. You have enforced the laws 
 against the slave trade and kept up your fleet 
 against it, even while every ship was wanted 
 for service in your terrible war. You have 
 nobly decided to receive ambassadors from the 
 Negro republics of Hayti and Liberia, thus for- 
 ever removing that unworthy prejudice which 
 refuses the rights of humanity to men and 
 women on account of their color. In order 
 more effectually to stop the slave trade, you 
 have made with our Queen a treaty, which 
 your Senate has ratified, for the right of mu- 
 tual search. Your Congress has decreed free- 
 dom as the law forever in the vast unoccupied 
 or half-settled territories which are directly 
 subject to its legislative power. It has of- 
 fered pecuniary aid to all the States which 
 will enact emancipation locally, and has for- 
 bidden your generals to restore fugitive slaves 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 21 
 
 who seek their protection. You have entreated 
 the slave masters to accept these moderate 
 offers; and, after long and patient waiting, 
 you, as commander-in-chief in tne army, have 
 appointed to-morrow, the first of January, 1863, 
 as the day of unconditional freedom for the 
 slaves of the rebel States. Heartily do we con- 
 gratulate you and your country on this hu- 
 mane and righteous course. 
 
 "We assume that you cannot now stop short 
 of a complete uprooting of slavery. It would 
 not become us to dictate any details, but there 
 are broad principles of humanity which must 
 guide you. If complete emancipation in some 
 States be deferred, though only to a prede- 
 termined day, still, in the interval, human be- 
 ings should not be counted chattels. Women 
 must have rights of chastity and maternity, 
 men the rights of husbands; masters the lib- 
 erty of manumission. Justice demands for 
 the black, no less than for the white, the pro- 
 tection of the law — that his voice may be heard 
 in your courts. Nor must any such abomina- 
 tion be tolerated as slave-breeding States 
 and a slave market — if you are to earn the 
 high reward of all your services in the appro- 
 val of the universal brotherhood and of the 
 Divine Father. It is for your free country 
 to decide whether anything but immediate and 
 total emancipation can secure the most in- 
 dispensable rights of humanity, against the 
 inveterate wickedness of local laws and local 
 executives. 
 
 "We implore you, for your own honor and 
 welcome, not to faint in your providential mis- 
 
22 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 sion. While your enthusiasm is aflame, and 
 the tide of events runs high, let the work be 
 finished effectually. Leave no root of bitter- 
 ness to spring up and work fresh misery to 
 your children. It is a mighty task, indeed, 
 to reorganize the industry, not only of four 
 millions of the colored race, but of five mil- 
 lions of whites. Nevertheless, the vast prog- 
 ress you have made in the short space of 
 twenty months fills us with hope that every 
 stain on your freedom will shortly be removed, 
 and that the erasure of that foul blot upon 
 civilization and Christianity — chattel slavery 
 — during your Presidency, will cause the name 
 of Abraham Lincoln to be honored and revered 
 by posterity. We are certain that such a 
 glorious consummation will cement Great Bri- 
 tain to the United States in close and enduring 
 regards. Our interests, moreover, are identi- 
 fied with yours. We are truly one people, 
 though locally separate. And if you have any 
 ill wishes here, be assured that they are chiefly 
 those who oppose liberty at home, and that they 
 will be powerless to stir up quarrels between 
 us, from the very day in which your country 
 becomes, undeniably and without exception, 
 the home of the free. 
 
 "Accept our high admiration of your firm- 
 ness in upholding the proclamation of free- 
 dom." 
 
 On February 2, 1863, Lincoln sent the fol- 
 lowing letter in answer to the address of the 
 London workingmen: 
 
 "To the workingmen of London: I have re- 
 ceived the New Year's address which you have 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 23 
 
 sent me, with a sincere appreciation of the ex- 
 alted and humane sentiments by which it was 
 inspired. 
 
 "As these sentiments are manifestly the 
 enduring support of the free institutions of 
 England, so I am sure also that they constitute 
 the only reliable basis for free institutions 
 throughout the world. 
 
 "The resources, advantages and powers of 
 the American people are very great, and they 
 have consequently succeeded to equally great 
 responsibilities. It seems to have developed 
 upon them to test whether a government es- 
 tablished on the principles of human freedom 
 can be maintained against an effort to build 
 one upon the exclusive foundation of human 
 bondage. They will rejoice with me in the new 
 evidences which your proceedings furnish that 
 the magnanimity they are exhibiting is justly 
 estimated by the true friends of freedom and 
 humanity in foreign countries. 
 
 "Accept my best wishes for your individual 
 welfare, and for the welfare and happiness of 
 the whole British people." 
 
 Abraham Lincoln."* 
 
 Previous to this, on January 19th, President 
 Lincoln had sent a more comprehensive reply 
 to the address of the workingmen of Manches- 
 ter. This reolv read as follows: 
 
 *Senate Documents. Third Session, 37th Con- 
 gress, 1862-18(>y. 
 
 
24 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 "Washington, January 19, 1863. 
 "To the Workingmen of Manchester, England: 
 "I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt 
 of the address and resolutions which you sent 
 me on the eve of the new year. When I came, 
 on the 4th of March, 1861, through a free and 
 constitutional election to preside in the Gov- 
 ernment of the United States, the country 
 was found at the verge of civil war. What- 
 ever might have been the cause or whoseever 
 the fault, one duty, paramount to all others, 
 was before me, namely, to maintain and pre- 
 serve at once the Constitution and the integ- 
 rity of the Federal Republic. A conscientious 
 purpose to perform this duty is the key to all 
 measures of administration which have been 
 and to all which will hereafter be pursued. 
 Under our frame of Government and my offi- 
 cial oath, I could not depart from this purpose 
 if I would. It is not always in the power of 
 government to enlarge or restrict the scope 
 of moral results which follow the policies 
 that they may deem it necessary for the pub- 
 lic safety from time to time to adopt. I have 
 understood well that the duty of self-preser- 
 vation rests solely with the American people; 
 but I have at the same time been aware that 
 favor or disfavor of foreign nations might 
 have a material influence in enlarging or pro- 
 longing the struggle with disloyal men in which 
 the country is engaged. A fair examination 
 of history has served to authorize a belief 
 that the past actions and influences of the 
 United States were generally regarded as hav- 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 25 
 
 ing been beneficial toward mankind. I have, 
 therefore, reckoned upon the forbearance of 
 nations. Circumstances to which you kindly 
 allude induce me especially to expect that if 
 justice and good faith should be practiced 
 by the United States, they would encounter 
 no hostile influence on the part of Great Brit- 
 ain. It is now a pleasant duty to acknowledge 
 the demonstration you have given of your de- 
 sire that a spirit of amity and peace toward 
 this country may prevail in the councils of 
 your Queen, who is respected and esteemed 
 in* your own country only more than she is 
 by the kindred nation which has its home on 
 this side of the Atlantic. I know and deeply 
 deplore the sufferings which the workingmen 
 at Manchester, and in all Europe, are called 
 to endure in this crisis. It has been often and 
 studiously represented that the attempt to 
 overthrow this Government, which was built 
 upon the foundation of human rights, and to 
 substitute for it one which should rest ex- 
 clusively on the basis of human slavery, was 
 likely to obtain the favor of Europe. Through 
 the action of our disloyal citizens, the work- 
 ingmen of Europe have been subjected to se- 
 vere trials, for the purpose of forcing their 
 sanction to that attempt. Under the circum- 
 stances, I cannot but regard your decisive utter- 
 ances upon the question as an instance of 
 sublime Christian heroism which has not been 
 surpassed in any age or in any country. It is 
 indeed an energetic and reinspiring assurance 
 of the inherent power of truth, and of the 
 ultimate and universal triumph of justice, 
 
 the 
 
26 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 manity and freedom. I do not doubt that the 
 sentiments you have expressed will be sus- 
 tained by your great nation; and, on the other 
 hand, I have no hesitation in assuring you 
 that they will excite admiration, esteem and the 
 most reciprocal feelings of friendship among 
 the American people. I hail this interchange 
 of sentiment, therefore, as an augury that 
 whatever else may happen, whatever misfor- 
 tune may befall your country or my own, the 
 peace and friendship which now exists be- 
 tween the two nations will be, as it shall # be 
 my desire to make them, perpetual. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln."* 
 
 On the 26th of February the Senate adopted 
 a resolution! requesting that the correspon- 
 dence between President Lincoln and the Work- 
 ingmen of England be laid before it. This was 
 done, and on March 2d the Senate ordered it 
 sent to the printer and incorporated in the 
 Senate Documents.** 
 
 President Lincoln's letter to the working- 
 men of Manchester recognizes the sacrifices 
 which the workingmen of England made in 
 behalf of the Union, and mentions the sub- 
 lime heroism shown by them, "unsurpassed in 
 any age or land." The polite phrases in re- 
 gard to the persons at the head of the English 
 Government were probably inserted for diplo- 
 
 *Senate Documents. 1863. 
 tCon,jressional Globe. February 26, 1863. 
 **Senate Documents. Third Session, 37th Con- 
 gress, 1862-63. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 27 
 
 ma tic reasons. It was really the English 
 working class alone that merited the gratitmde 
 of the Union. 
 
28 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS* 
 
 3. Lincoln's Attitude towards the Work- 
 ing Class. 
 
 Next to Washington, of all the Presidents, 
 Lincoln ranks highest in the esteem of the 
 American people. It is not only his relation to 
 Negro emancipation and his tragic death that 
 have made him the national hero of this coun- 
 try. Mythical tradition also has so glorified 
 him that he is now celebrated for views which 
 he did not hold. 
 
 Mythical tradition has especially transfig- 
 ured Lincoln's attitude towards the work- 
 ing class. He has been credited with pro- 
 phetic expressions favoring the inference that 
 he foresaw the dominion of capitalist corpora- 
 tions and entertained the fear that all wealth 
 would become concentrated in a few hands, 
 to the great peril of the Republic. Utterances 
 have been ascribed to him counselling the 
 working class to guard well the political rights 
 which they possess and not to allow such rights 
 to be wrested from them. He is even said to 
 have had the economic wisdom to declare that 
 every government should strive to secure for 
 every workingman, as far as possible, the 
 entire product of his labor. In short, Lincoln 
 was represented as a man who had excogitated 
 for himself a clear view of the economic evolu- 
 tion of society, alike in the present and the 
 future, who distinctly recognized the part which 
 the working class would play in this evolution, 
 whose sympathies were entirely with the work- 
 ing class, and who ^ised a warning voice 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 29 
 
 against the "money power." 
 
 Lincoln did not possess this knowledge of 
 economic evolution; he had no idea of the his- 
 toric part the working class is called to play; 
 he had no idea even of the special significance 
 of the labor movement, and his sympathies 
 were not with the workingmen, in so far as 
 they voiced the demands of a separate class. 
 Lincoln has been extolled as a friend of the 
 workingmen, as almost a Socialist, the So- 
 cialist press of the United States even join- 
 ing in the chorus of praise. This praise has 
 been possible only because sentiments have 
 been ascribed to him which he never uttered, 
 and because certain expressions used by him 
 have been distorted or falsified into their 
 direct opposite.* 
 
 *An ingenious fabrication of utterances on labor 
 purporting to be Lincoln's has been printed and 
 circulated by the thousand in every part of the Uni- 
 ted States. It consists of five paragraphs, the last 
 four of which are more or less genuine, but are 
 distorted out of their meaning. The first paragraph 
 begins, "I see in the near future a crisis approach- 
 ing that unnerves me." The whole fabrication wai 
 analyzed by W. J. Ghent In Collier's Weekly for 
 April 1, 1905. Of the first paragraph Mr. Ghent 
 writes: 
 
 "[It] is almost certainly a forgery. The style is 
 not Lincoln's, nor in so far as any one can now 
 say, are the sentiments. Nowhere among his au- 
 thenticated utterances is there to be found anything 
 resembling either the form or the substance of this 
 paragraph. No one has ever been able to show 
 the original in Lincoln's hand, and repeated de- 
 mands for its production have met only vague as- 
 sertions of its existence in some other and generally 
 remote place." 
 
30 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 Apart from his sentiments in regard to 
 slavery, there are but few among Lincoln*! 
 numerous spoken and written utterances which 
 deal with the labor question. In none of these 
 utterances did he declare himself in favor of 
 the working , class and its special demands 
 as antagonistic to the other classes of the pop- 
 ulation. On the contrary, he always avoided 
 recognizing such antagonisms. At Cincinnati, 
 on February 12, 1861, he addressed a meeting 
 of German workingmen. When the chairman 
 declared it as the sense of those present that 
 the working class must be the foundation^ of all 
 government, Lincoln cautiously remarked: 
 
 "I agree with you, Mr. Chairman, that the 
 workingmen are the basis of all government, 
 for the plain reason that they are the more 
 numerous, and as you added, that those were 
 the sentiments of the gentlemen present, rep- 
 resenting not only the working class, but citi- 
 zens of other callings than those of the me- 
 chanic, I am happy to concur with you in these 
 sentiments." 
 
 Even before this, in March, 1860, Lincoln 
 had expressed himself in regard to the labor 
 movement. The campaign had taken him to 
 New England, where the struggles of the work- 
 ingmen presented themselves to him more 
 forcibly than elsewhere. In Massachusetts 
 there was in progress a strike of the shoe- 
 makers which Senator Douglas had repre- 
 sented as a consequence "of this unfortunate 
 sectional warfare" between the North and the 
 South. In a speech at Hartford, Conn., on 
 March 5, 1860, Lincoln challenged the ridicu- 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 31 
 
 lous statement of Douglas, saying he "thanked 
 God that we have a system of labor where 
 there can be a strike. Whatever the pressure, 
 there is a point where the workingman may 
 stop." Here, too, Lincoln added cautiously 
 that he did not pretend to be familiar with the 
 subject of the shoe strike. "If you give up 
 your convictions and call slavery right, as they 
 do, you let slavery in upon you — instead of 
 white laborers who can strike, you'll soon have 
 black laborers who can't strike."* 
 
 In a speech at New Haven, Conn., on the 
 following day, Lincoln returned to the subject, 
 saying: 
 
 "I am glad to see that a system of labor pre- 
 vails in New England under which laborers can 
 strike when they want to, where they are not 
 obliged to work under all circumstances, and 
 are not tied down and obliged to labor whether 
 you pay them or not. I like the system which 
 lets a man quit when he wants to, and wish it 
 might prevail everywhere. One of the reasons 
 why I am opposed to slavery is just here. What 
 is the true condition of the laborer? I take it 
 that it is the best for all to leave each man 
 free to acquire property as fast as he can. 
 Some will get wealthy. I don't believe in a law 
 to prevent a man from getting rich; it would 
 do more harm than good. So while we do not 
 propose any war upon capital, we do wish to 
 allow the humblest man an equal chance to get 
 
 *J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay: Abraham Lincoln, I., 
 pp. 615-616. 
 
32 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 rich with everybody else. When one starts 
 poor, as most do in the race of life, free so- 
 ciety is such that he knows he can better his 
 condition — he knows that there is no fixed con- 
 dition of labor for his whole life. I am not 
 ashamed to confess that twenty-five years ago 
 I was a hired laborer, mauling rails, at work 
 on a flatboat — just what might happen to any 
 poor man's son. I want every man to have his 
 chance — and I believe a black man is entitled 
 to it — in which he can better his condition — 
 when he may look forward and hope to be a 
 hired laborer this year and the next, work for 
 himself afterward, and finally hire men to 
 work for him. That is the true system."* 
 
 One may gather from this speech that Lin- 
 coln regarded the strike as a rightful weapon 
 in the struggles of the workingmen, but the 
 cautious reserve with which he discusses the 
 matter leaves uncertain his attitude towards 
 labor organizations and particularly towards 
 trade unions. 
 
 The two speeches merely show that Lincoln 
 preferred the system of "free labor" to the 
 system of slave labor. For the rest, it is to be 
 seen from his observations that he had no com- 
 prehension of the aims and ends of the labor 
 movement or of the special interests of the 
 working class. The labor movement was to 
 him a phenomenon for which he had no under- 
 standing and to which he probably never paid 
 any particular attention. 
 
 After his election to the Presidency, Lincoln 
 
 Nicolay and Hay, L, pp. 625-626. 
 
LINCQLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 33 
 
 discussed the question of capital and labor 
 more thoroughly in his message to Congress of 
 December, 1861. He took the same position in 
 this document which he had set forth in his 
 speeches in Hartford and New Haven, and even 
 earlier in an address at Milwaukee, and. de- 
 fended it in almost the same language. This 
 message precisely defined Lincoln's position in 
 relation to economic questions, and it must 
 never be left out of consideration if one wishes 
 to form a true view of the opinions of the man 
 in regard to these matters. 
 
 Later, in the year preceding his death, Lin- 
 coln made special reference to the propositions 
 in this message, as to a sort of programme to 
 be submitted to workingmen for their consid- 
 eration, thereby making it plain that he never 
 discarded the views there laid down. 
 
 In New York, in 1863, a workingmen's or- 
 ganization had been formed under the name of 
 the Republican Workingmen's Association of 
 New York. This association resolved to make 
 President Lincoln an honorary member. A 
 committee was appointed and sent to Wash- 
 ington for the purpose of apprising the Pres- 
 ident of his election to an honorary member- 
 ship in the association and of submitting to 
 him an address. Lincoln received this commit- 
 tee on March 21, 1864, and addressed them as 
 follows: 
 
 "Gentlemen of the Committee: The honorary 
 membership in your association, as generously 
 tendered, is gratefully accepted. 
 
 "You comprehend, as your address shews, 
 
34 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 that the existing rebellion means more, and 
 tends to more, than the perpetuation of Afri- 
 can slavery — that it is, in fact, a war upon the 
 rights of all working people. Partly to show 
 that this view has not escaped my attention, 
 and partly that I cannot better express myself, 
 I read a passage from the message to Con- 
 gress in December, 1861: 
 
 " 'It continues to develop that the insurrec- 
 tion is largely, if not exclusively, a war upon 
 the first principle of popular government — the 
 rights of the people. Conclusive evidence of 
 this is found in the most grave and maturely 
 considered public documents as well as in the 
 general tone of the insurgents. In those doc- 
 uments we find the abridgement of the exist- 
 ing right of suffrage, and the denial to the 
 people of all right to participate in the selec- 
 tion of public officers, except the legislative, 
 boldly advocated, with labored arguments to 
 prove that large control of the people in gov- 
 ernment is the source of all political evil. 
 Monarchy itself is sometimes hinted at as a 
 possible refuge from the power of the people. 
 
 " 'In my present position I could scarcely be 
 justified were I to omit raising a warning voice 
 against this approach of returning despotism. 
 
 " 'It is not needed, nor fitting here, that a 
 general argument should be made in favor oi 
 popular institutions; but there is one point, 
 with its connections, not so hackneyed as most 
 others, to which I ask a brief attention, It it 
 the effort, to place capital on an equal footing 
 with, if not above, labor, in the structure of 
 government. It is assumed that labor is avail* 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 35 
 
 able only in connection with capital, that no- 
 body labors unless somebody else, owning cap- 
 ital, somehow by the use of it induces him to 
 labor. This assumed, it is next considered 
 whether it is best, that capital shall hire la- 
 borers and thus induce them to work by their 
 own consent, or buy them and drive them to 
 it without their consent. Having proceeded 
 so far, it is naturally concluded that all labor- 
 ers are either hired laborers or what we call 
 slaves, and, further, it is assumed that who- 
 ever is once a hired laborer, is fixed in that 
 condition for life. 
 
 " 'Now, there is no such relation between 
 capital and labor as assumed; nor is there 
 any such thing as a free man being fixed for 
 life in the condition of a hired laborer. Both 
 these assumptions are false, and all inferences 
 from them are groundless. 
 
 " 'Labor is prior to, and independent of, capi- 
 tal. Capital is only the fruit of labor and could 
 never have existed if labor had not first ex- 
 isted. Labor is the superior of capital, and 
 deserves much the higher consideration. Capi- 
 tal has its rights, which are as worthy of pro- 
 tection as any other rights. Nor is it denied 
 that there is, and probably always will be, a 
 relation between capital and labor, producing 
 mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that 
 the whole labor of the community exists within 
 that relation. A few men own capital, and 
 that few avoid labor themselves, and, with 
 their capital, hire or buy another few to labor 
 for them. A large majority belong to neither 
 class — neither work for others, nor have otheri 
 
36 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 working for them. In most of the Southern 
 States a majority of the whole people, of all 
 colors, are neither slaves nor masters; while 
 in the Northern, a large majority are neither 
 hirers nor hired. Men with their families — - 
 wives, sons, and daughters — work for them- 
 selves, on their farms, in their houses, and in 
 their shops, taking the whole product to them- 
 selves, and asking no favors of capital on the 
 one hand, nor of hired laborers or slaves on the 
 other. It is not forgotten that a considerable 
 number of persons mingle their own labor with 
 capital, that is: they labor with their own 
 hands, and also buy or hire others to labor for 
 them, but this is only a mixed and not a dis- 
 tinct class. No principle stated is disturbed by 
 the existence of the mixed class. 
 
 " 'Again, as has already been said, there is 
 not, of necessity, any such thing as the free 
 hired laborer being fixed to that condition for 
 life. Many independent men everywhere in 
 those States, a few years back in their lives, 
 were hired laborers. The prudent pennilesi 
 beginner in the world labors for wages a while, 
 saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land 
 for himself, then labors on his own account 
 another while, and at length hires another new 
 beginner to help him. This is the just and 
 generous and prosperous system, which openi 
 the way to all — gives hope to all and conse- 
 quent energy and progress and improvement of 
 condition to all. No men living are more 
 worthy to be trusted than those who toil up 
 from poverty — none less inclined to take or 
 touch that which they have not honestly earned. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 37 
 
 Let them beware of surrendering a political 
 power which they already possess, and which, 
 if surrendered, will surely be used to close 
 the door of advancement against such as they, 
 and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon 
 them, till all of liberty shall be lost/ 
 
 "The views then expressed remain un- 
 changed, nor have I much to add. None are 
 so deeply interested to resist the present rebel- 
 lion as the working people. Let them beware 
 of prejudice, working division and hostility 
 among themselves. The most notable feature 
 of a disturbance in your city last summer was 
 the hanging of some working people by other 
 working people. It should never be so. The 
 strongest bond of human sympathy, outside of 
 the family relation, should be one uniting all 
 working people, of all nations, and tongues, 
 and kindreds. Nor should this lead to a war 
 upon property, or the owners of property. 
 Property is the fruit of labor; property is de- 
 sirable; is a positive good in the world. That 
 some should be rich shows that others may be- 
 come rich, and hence is just encouragement to 
 industry and enterprise. Let not him who is 
 houseless pull down the house of another, but 
 let him work diligently and build one for him- 
 self, thus by example assuring that his own 
 shall be safe from violence when built."* 
 
 It is evident from this address that Lincoln 
 considered himself as belonging to the lower 
 middle-class (petty bourgeoisie) and that he 
 
 •Nicolay and Hay, pp. 501-502. 
 
38 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 was imbued by its ideals. Nothing is more 
 natural, considering the state of social evolu- 
 tion in America at that time and Lincoln's in- 
 dividual development. Lincoln denies the ex- 
 istence of an industrial proletariat, "fixed to 
 that condition for life." In the light of hii 
 lower middle-class experiences and ideals he 
 still saw for every one the possibility of ad- 
 vancement from wage worker to proprietor. 
 His observations are a glorification of the 
 lower middle-class, the men who are neither 
 capitalists nor wage workers. The former 
 wage worker who advances by his own efforts 
 and then hires another beginner as a wage 
 worker, thus becoming a small employer — such 
 is Lincoln's ideal. That is to him "the just 
 and generous and prosperous system." He 
 warns this stratum of the population, who "toil 
 up from poverty," to beware of surrendering; 
 their political rights and their political power. 
 It is not the workingmen whom Lincoln coun- 
 sels to vigilance over their political rights, but 
 the lower middle-class. And whoever might 
 still entertain the slightest doubt concerning 
 Lincoln's position among the classes constitut- 
 ing society, and the distance by which he wai 
 still separated from the Socialist point of view, 
 will be set right by the close of his address to 
 the New York labor committee, by his glorifi- 
 cation of property and its owners, and by his 
 warning to workingmen not to "make war 
 upon property." If he was at all aware of 
 Socialist views and had formed an opinion con- 
 cerning them, it must have been a hostile one. 
 This was quite natural. The labor question 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 39 
 
 and its implications were foreign to him. He 
 represented the farmer and the lower middle- 
 class with whom his strength lay, and who at 
 that period constituted the most powerful 
 stratum of the population of the Northern 
 States of the Union. 
 
 The passage in Lincoln's address to the New 
 York labor committee, "the strongest bond of 
 human sympathy, outside of the family rela- 
 tion, should be one uniting all working people, 
 of all .nations and tongues and kindreds" has 
 led some to conclude that its author must have 
 had an understanding of the international sol- 
 idarity of the working class and of the special 
 class solidarity which is peculiar to the labor 
 movement on a higher plane. It is possible 
 that the heroic attitude in favor of the Union 
 assumed by the working class of England dur- 
 ing the war had awakened in him a slight un- 
 derstanding of the class solidarity of working- 
 men, but it is not probable, and we must con- 
 sider that beautiful passage as a mere mode of 
 expression without any deeper significance. If 
 one were to draw inferences from a single 
 passage of this kind as to Lincoln's general 
 way of thinking in regard to the labor move- 
 ment, one would have to concede the right of 
 other classes to derive precisely contrary con- 
 clusions from his remarks in the speech at 
 New Haven: "I take it that it is the best for 
 all to leave each man free to acquire property 
 as fast as he can," and "I don't believe in a law 
 to prevent a man from getting rich." 
 
 But there is still another document on the 
 strength of which a claim has been made for 
 
40 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 Lincoln's approach to Socialism. In 1847 Lin- 
 coln had outlined a speech on the protective 
 tariff and free trade which he intended to de- 
 liver in Congress. In this outline occur the 
 following statements : 
 
 "In the early days of our race the Almighty 
 said to the first of our race, 'In the sweat of thy 
 face shalt thou eat bread,' and since then, if 
 we except the light and the air of heaven, no 
 good thing has been or can be enjoyed by us 
 without having first cost labor. And inas- 
 much as most good things are produced by 
 labor, it follows that all such things of right 
 belong to those whose labor has produced them. 
 But it has so happened, in all ages of the world, 
 that some have labored, and others have with- 
 out labor enjoyed a large proportion of the 
 fruits. This is wrong, and should not continue. 
 To secure to each laborer the whole product of 
 his labor, or as nearly as possible, is a 
 worthy object of any good government. 
 
 "But when the question arises, how can a 
 government best effect this? In our own 
 country, in its present condition, will the pro- 
 tective principle advance or retard this object? 
 Upon this subject the habits of our whole 
 species fall into three great classes — useful 
 labor, useless labor and idleness. Of these, the 
 first only is meritorious, and to it all the prod- 
 ucts of labor rightfully belong; but the two 
 latter, while they exist, are heavy pensioners 
 upon the first, robbing it of a large portion of 
 its just rights. The only remedy for this is 
 to, so far as possible, drive useless labor and 
 idleness out of existence. And, first, as to 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 41 
 
 useless labor. Before making war upon this 
 we must learn to distinguish it from useful. 
 It appears to me that all labor done directly 
 and indirectly in carrying articles to the place 
 of consumption, which could have been pro- 
 duced in sufficient abundance, with as little 
 labor, at the place of consumption as at the 
 place they were carried from, is useless la- 
 bor."* 
 
 On the basis of these considerations Lincoln 
 attempted to demonstrate that it would be use- 
 ful labor to inaugurate and develop in the 
 South, where cotton is indigenous, the cotton 
 spinning and weaving industry. To this end 
 he demanded the maintenance of the protective 
 tariff. 
 
 He writes literally: 
 
 "I try to show that the abandonment of the 
 protective policy by the American Government 
 must result in the increase of both useless 
 labor and idleness, and so, in proportion, must 
 produce want and ruin among the people." 
 
 Considered out of their context, Lincoln's in- 
 troductory remarks in this outline might pro- 
 duce the impression that he indeed inclined to- 
 wards certain Socialist views according to 
 which the product of labor should belong to 
 him who created it. It is even not impossible 
 that Lincoln, at the high tide of the Fourierist 
 movement, at the time when he wrote his out- 
 line, had become acquainted with newspapers 
 and pamphlets containing similar propositions 
 
 *Nirolay and Hay, I., p. 92 ff. 
 
42 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 and that he drew his inspiration from these. 
 It is certain that he was a reader of Greely's 
 Tribune. But in the connection where we find 
 it, the sentence "to secure to each laborer the 
 whole product of his labor, or as nearly as pos- 
 sible, is a worthy object of any good govern- 
 ment," cannot mean that the wage worker is 
 to receive the product of his labor. That labor 
 alone produces values was by no means clear 
 to Lincoln. In his view the manufacturer who 
 exploited a number of men was also doing use- 
 ful work, and he, too, was therefore entitled to 
 the product of his labor. The transport of mer- 
 chandise he did not consider as useful labor, 
 and the workingmen engaged in the transpor- 
 tation of merchandise were therefore not en- 
 titled to a share of the product. Lincoln's So- 
 cialist-sounding phrases of 1847 by no means 
 bore a Socialist meaning; they could not bear 
 such a meaning because their author had no 
 conception of the working class as a well-de- 
 fined stratum of the population, with economic 
 interests of its own and with definite historical 
 aims. 
 
 Abraham Linclon was not a Socialist, nor 
 was he particularly friendly to workingmen as 
 the components of a class. The ideas of the 
 modern working-class movement were to him 
 foreign ideas and remained so even in his later 
 years. He stood on the ground of the lower 
 middle-class and the farmer element, to which 
 he himself belonged. He was a man of his 
 age, with whose ideas he was imbued. He was 
 not a man of the future, and he knew nothing 
 of the ideas of the future. And the ideas which 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 43 
 
 have been developed by the labor movement 
 were to him the ideas of a future time. 
 
44 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES 
 
 GETTYSBURG ADDRESS 
 
 November 19, 1863 
 
 Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers 
 brought forth on this continent a new nation, 
 conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the pro- 
 position that all men are created equal. 
 
 Now we are engaged in a great civil war, 
 testing whether that nation, or any nation so 
 conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. 
 We are met on a great battlefield of that war. 
 We have come to dedicate a portion of that 
 field is a final resting place for those who here 
 gave their lives that that nation might live. 
 It is altogether fitting that we should do this. 
 
 But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate 
 — we cannot consecrate— we cannot hallow — 
 this ground. The brave men, living and dead, 
 who struggled here, have consecrated it far 
 above our poor power to add or detract. The 
 world will little note nor long remember what 
 we say here, but it can never forget what they 
 did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be 
 dedicated here to the unfinished work which 
 they who fought here have Lhus far so nobly 
 advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedi- 
 cated to the great task remaining before us — 
 that from these honored dead we take increas- 
 ed devotion to that cause for which they gave 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 45 
 
 the last full measure of devotion; that we 
 here highly resolve that these dead shall not 
 have died in vain; that this nation, under God, 
 shall have a new birth of freedom; and that 
 government of the people, by the people, for 
 the people, shall not perish from the earth. 
 
 FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 March 4, 1861 
 
 Fellow-Citizens of the United States: In 
 compliance with a custom as old as the govern- 
 ment itself, I appear before you to address you 
 briefly, and to take in your presence the oath 
 prescribed by the Constitution of the United 
 States to be taken by the President "before 
 he enters on the execution of his office." 
 
 I do not consider it necessary at present for 
 me to discuss those matters of administration 
 about which there is no special anxiety or ex- 
 citement. 
 
 Apprehension seems to exist among the peo- 
 ple of the Southern States that by the acces- 
 sion of a Republican administration their prop- 
 erty and their peace and personal security are 
 to be endangered. There has never been any 
 reasonable cause for such apprehension. In- 
 deed, the most ample evidence to the contrary 
 has all the while existed and been open to their 
 inspection. It is found in nearly all the pub- 
 lished speeches of him who now addresses you. 
 I do but quote from one of those speeches 
 
46 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 when I declare that "I have no purpose, direct- 
 ly or indirectly, to interfere with tne institu- 
 tion of slavery in the States where it exists. 
 I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and 
 I have no inclination to do so." Those who 
 nominated and elected me did so with full 
 knowledge that I had made this and many sim- 
 ilar declarations, and had never recanted them. 
 And, more than this, they placed in the plat- 
 form for my acceptance, and as a law to them- 
 selves and to me, the clear and emphatic reso- 
 lution which I now read: 
 
 "Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate 
 of the rights of the States, and especially the 
 right of each State to order and control its 
 own domestic institutions according to its own 
 judgment exclusively, is essential to that bal- 
 ance of power on which the perfection and en- 
 durance of our political fabric depend, and we 
 denounce the lawless invasion by armed force 
 of the soil of any State or Territory, no mat- 
 ter under what pretext, as among the gravest 
 of crimes." 
 
 I now reiterate these sentiments; and, in 
 doing so, I only press upon the public atten- 
 tion the most conclusive evidence of which 
 the ease is susceptible, that the property, peace, 
 and security of no section are to be in any 
 wise endangered by the now incoming ad- 
 ministration. I add, too, that all the protec- 
 tion which, consistently with the Constitution 
 and the laws, can be given, will be cheerfully 
 given to the States when lawfully demanded, 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 47 
 
 for whatever cause — as cheerfully to one sec- 
 tion as to another. 
 
 There is much controversy about the deliv- 
 ering up of fugitives from service or labor. 
 The clause I now read is as plainly written in 
 the Constitution as any other of its pro- 
 visions: 
 
 "No person held to service or labor in one 
 State, under the laws thereof, escaping into 
 another, shall in consequence of any law or 
 regulation therein be discharged from such 
 service or labor, but shall be delivered up on 
 claim of the party to whom such service or 
 labor may be due." 
 
 It is scarcely questioned that this provision 
 was intended by those who made it for the 
 reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves; and 
 the intention of the lawgiver is the law. All 
 members of Congress swear their support to 
 the whole Constitution — to this provision as 
 much as to any other. To the proposition, 
 then, that slaves whose cases come within the 
 terms of this clause "shall be delivered up," 
 their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would 
 make the effort in good temper, could they 
 not with nearly equal unanimity frame and 
 pass a law by means of which to keep good that 
 unanimous oath? 
 
 There is some difference of opinion whether 
 this clause should be enforced by national or 
 by State authority; but surely that difference 
 is not a very material one. If the slave is to 
 be surrendered, it can be of but little conse- 
 quence to him or to others by which authority 
 
48 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 it is done. And should any one in any case be 
 content that his oath shall go unkept on a 
 merely unsubstantial controversy as to how it 
 shall be kept? 
 
 Again, in any law upon this subject, ought 
 not all the safeguards of liberty known in 
 civilized and humane jurisprudence to be in- 
 troduced, so that a free man be not, in any 
 case, surrendered as a slave? And might it 
 not be well at the same time to provide by law 
 for the enforcement of that clause in the Con- 
 stitution which guarantees that "the citizens of 
 each State shall be entitled to all privileges 
 and immunities of citizens in the several 
 States?" 
 
 I take the official oath today with no men- 
 tal reservations, and with no purpose to con- 
 strue the Constitution or laws by any hyper- 
 critical rules. And while I do not choose now 
 to specify particular acts of Congress as prop- 
 er to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be 
 much safer for all, both in official and private 
 stations, to conform to and abide by all those 
 acts which stand unrepealed, than to violate 
 any of them, trusting to find impunity in 
 having them held to be unconstitutional. 
 
 It is seventy-two years since the first in- 
 auguration of a President under our Na- 
 tional Constitution. During that period fif- 
 teen different and greatly distinguished citi- 
 zens have, in succession, administered the ex- 
 ecutive branch of the government. They have 
 conducted it through many perils, and general- 
 ly with great success. Yet, with all this scope 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 49 
 
 of precedent, I now enter upon the task for the 
 brief constitutional term of four years under 
 great and peculiar difficulty. A disruption 
 of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, 
 is now formidably attempted. 
 
 I hold that, in contemplation of universal 
 law and of the Constitution, the Union of 
 these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is im- 
 plied, if not expressed, in the fundamental 
 law of all national government. It is safe to 
 assert that no government proper ever had 
 a provision in its organic law for its own ter- 
 mination. Continue to execute all the express 
 provisions of our National Constitution, and 
 the Union will endure forever — it being impos- 
 sible to destroy it except by some action not 
 provided for in the instrument itself. 
 
 Again, if the United States be not a gov- 
 ernment proper, but an association of States 
 in the nature of contract merely, can it, as 
 a contract be peaceably unmade by less than 
 all the parties who made it? One party to 
 a contract may violate — break it, so to speak; 
 but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it ? 
 
 Descending from these general principles, 
 we find the proposition that, in legal contem- 
 plation the Union is perpetual confirmed by 
 the history of the Union itself. . The Union 
 is much older than the Constitution. It was 
 formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association 
 in 1774. It was matured and continued by the 
 Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was 
 further matured, and the faith of all the then 
 
50 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged 
 that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of 
 Confederation in 1778. And, finally, in 1787 
 one of the declared objects for ordaining and 
 establishing the Constitution was "to form 
 a more perfect Union." 
 
 But if the destruction of the Union by one 
 or by a part only of the States, be lawfully 
 possible, the Union is less perfect than before 
 the Constitution, having lost the vital element 
 of perpetuity. 
 
 It follows from these views that no State 
 upon its own mere motion can lawfully get 
 out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances 
 to that effect are legally void; and that acts 
 of violence, within any State or States, against 
 the authority of the United States, are insur- 
 rectionary or revolutionary, according to cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 I therefore consider that, in view of the 
 Constitution and the laws, the Union is un- 
 broken; and to the extent of my ability I 
 shall take care, as the Constitution itself ex- 
 pressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the 
 Union be faithfully executed in all the States. 
 Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty 
 on my part; and I shall perform it so far as 
 practicable, unless my rightful masters, the 
 American people, shall withhold the requisite 
 means, or in some authoritative manner direct 
 the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded 
 as a menace, but only as the declared purpose 
 of the Union that it will constitutionally de- 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 51 
 
 fend and maintain itself. 
 
 In doing this there needs to be no blood- 
 shed or violence; and there shall be none, un- 
 less it be forced upon the national authority 
 The power confided to me will be used to 
 hold, occupy and possess the property and 
 places belonging to the government, and to 
 collect the duties and imposts; but beyond 
 what may be necessary for these objects, 
 there will be no invasion, no using of force 
 against or among the people anywhere. Where 
 hostility to the United States, in any interior 
 locality, shall be so great and universal as to 
 prevent competent resident citizens from hold- 
 ing the Federal offices, there will be no at- 
 tempt to force obnoxious strangers among the 
 people for that object. While the strict legal 
 right may exist in the government to enforce 
 the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do 
 so would be so irritating, and so nearly im- 
 practicable withal, that I deenu it better to 
 forego for the time the uses of such offices. 
 
 The mails, unless repelled, will continue 
 to be furnished in all parts of the Union. So 
 far as possible, the people everywhere 3hall 
 have that sense of perfect security which is 
 most favorable to calm thought and reflec- 
 tion. The course here indicated will be 
 followed unless current events and experience 
 shall show a modification or change to be 
 proper, and in every case and exigency my 
 best discretion will be exercised according to 
 circumstances actually existing, and with a 
 
52 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 view and a hope of a perfect solution of the 
 national troubles and the restoration of frater- 
 nal sympathies and affections. 
 
 That there are persons in one section or 
 another who seek to destroy the Union at all 
 events, and are glad of any pretext to do it, 
 I will neither affirm nor deny; but if there 
 be such, I need address no word to them. To 
 those, however, who really love the Union may 
 I not speak? 
 
 Before entering upon so grave a matter as 
 the destruction of our national fabric, with all 
 its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, would 
 it not be wise to ascertain precisely why we do 
 it? Will you hazard so desperate a step while 
 there is any possibility that any portion of the 
 ills you fly from have no real existence ? Will 
 you, while the certain ills you fly to are great- 
 er than all the real ones you fly from — will 
 you risk the commission of so fearful a mis- 
 take? 
 
 All profess to be content in the Union if 
 2l)\ constitutional rights can be maintained. 
 Is it true, then, that any right, plainly writ- 
 ten in the Constitution, has been denied? 1 
 think not. Happily the human mind is so con- 
 stituted that no party can reach to the au- 
 dacity of doing this. Think, if you can, of a 
 single instance in which a plainly written pro- 
 vision of the Constitution has ever been de- 
 nied. If by the mere force of numbers a ma- 
 jority should deprive a minority of any clearly 
 written constitutional right, it might, in a 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 53 
 
 moral point of view, justify revolution- -cer- 
 tainly would if such a right were a vital one. 
 But such is not our case. All the vital rights 
 of minorities and of individuals are so plainly 
 assured to them by affirmations and negations, 
 guarantees and prohibitions, in the Constitu- 
 tion, that controversies never arise concerning 
 them. But no organic law can ever be framed 
 with a provision specifically applicable to 
 every question which may occur in practical 
 administration. No foresight can anticipate, 
 nor any document of reasonable length con- 
 tain, express provisions for all possible ques- 
 tions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrender- 
 ed by national or by State authority? The 
 Constitution does not expressly say. May 
 Congress prohibit slavery in the Territories? 
 The Constitution does not expressly say. Must 
 Congress protect slavery in the Territories? 
 The Constitution does not expressly say. 
 
 From questions of this class spring all our 
 constitutional controversies, and we divide 
 upon them into majorities and minorities. If 
 the minority will not acquiesce, the majority 
 must, or the government must cease. There 
 is no other alternative; for continuing the gov- 
 ernment is acquiescence on one side or the 
 other. 
 
 If a minority in such case will secede rather 
 than acquiesce, they make a precedent which 
 in turn will divide and ruin them; for a mi- 
 nority of their own will secede from them 
 whenever a majority refuses to be controlled 
 
54 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 by such minority. For instance, why may 
 not any portion of a new confederacy a year 
 or two hence arbitrarily secede again, precise- 
 ly as portions of the present Union now claim 
 to secede from it? All who cherish disunion 
 sentiments are now being educated to the 
 exact temper of doing this. 
 
 Is there such perfect identity of instincts 
 among the States to compose a new Union, 
 as to produce harmony only, and prevent re- 
 newed secession? 
 
 Plainly, the central idea of secession is the 
 essence of anarchy. A majority held in re- 
 straint by constitutional checks and limita- 
 tions, and always changing easily with de- 
 liberate changes of popular opinions and senti- 
 ments, is the only true sovereign of a free 
 people. Whoever rejects it does, of necessity, 
 fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity 
 is impossible; the rule of a minority, as a per- 
 manent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; 
 so that, rejecting the majority principle, an- 
 archy or despotism in some form Is all that 
 is left. 
 
 I do not forget the position, assumed by 
 some, that constitutional questions are to be 
 decided by the Supreme Court; nor do I deny 
 that such decisions must be binding, in any 
 case, upon the parties to a suit, as to the 
 object of that suit, while they are also en- 
 titled to very high respect and consideration 
 in all parallel cases by all other departments 
 of the government. And while it is obviously 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 65 
 
 possible that such decision may be erroneous 
 in any given case, still the evil effect follow- 
 ing it, being limited to that particular case, 
 with the chance that it may be overruled and 
 never become a precedent for other cases, can 
 better be borne than could the evils of a dif- 
 ferent practice. At the same time, the can- 
 did citizen must confess that if the policy of 
 the government, upon vital questions affecting 
 the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by 
 decision of the Supreme Court, the instant 
 they are made, in ordinary litigation between 
 parties in personal actions, the people will 
 have ceased to be their own rulers, having to 
 that extent practically resigned their govern- 
 ment into the hands of that eminent tribunal. 
 Nor is there in this view any assault upon the 
 court or the judges. It is a duty from which 
 they may not shrink to decide cases properly 
 brought before them, and it is no fault of 
 theirs if others seek to turn their decisions 
 to political purposes. 
 
 One section of our country believes slav- 
 ery is right, and ought to be extended, while 
 the other believes it is wrong, and ought not 
 to be extended. This is the only substantial 
 dispute. The fugitive-slave clause of the Con- 
 stitution, and the law for the suppression of 
 the foreign slave-trade, are each as well en- 
 forced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in a 
 community where moral sense of the people 
 imperfectly supports the law itself. The great 
 body of the people abide by the dry legal obli- 
 
56 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 gation in both cases, and a few break over 
 in each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly 
 cured: and it would be worse in both cases 
 after the separation of the sections than be- 
 fore. The foreign slave-trade, now imper- 
 fectly suppressed, would be ultimately revived, 
 without restriction, in one section, while fugi- 
 tive slaves, now only partially surrendered, 
 would not be surrendered at all by the other. 
 
 Physically speaking, we cannot separate. 
 We cannot remove our respective sections 
 from each other, nor build an impassable wall 
 between them. A husband and wife may be 
 divorced, and go out of the presence and be- 
 yond the reach , of each other; but the. differ- 
 ent parts of our country cannot do this. They 
 cannot but remain face to face, and inter- 
 course, either amicable or hostile, must con- 
 tinue between them. Is it possible, then, to 
 make that intercourse more advantageous or 
 more satisfactory after separation than be- 
 fore? Can aliens make treaties easier than 
 friends can make laws? Can treaties be more 
 faithfully enforced between aliens than laws 
 can among friends? Suppose you go to war. 
 you cannot fight always; and when, after 
 much loss on both sides, and no gain on either, 
 you cease fighting, the identical old questions 
 as to terms of intercourse are again upon you. 
 
 This country, with its institutions, belongs 
 to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they 
 shall grow weary of the existing government, 
 they ran exercise their constitutional right of 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 57 
 
 amending it, or their revolutionary right to 
 dismember or overthrow it. I cannot be 
 ignorant of the fact that many worthy and 
 patriotic citizens are desirous of having the 
 National Constitution amended. While I make 
 no recommendation of amendments, I fully 
 recognize the rightful authority of the people 
 over the whole subject, to be exercised in 
 either of the modes prescribed in the instru- 
 ment itself; and I should, under existing cir- 
 cumstances, favor rather than oppose a fair 
 opportunity being afforded the people to act 
 upon it. I will venture to add that to me the 
 convention mode seems preferable, in that 
 it allows amendments to originate with the 
 people themselves, instead of only permitting 
 them to take or reject propositions originated 
 by others not especially chosen for the pur- 
 pose, and which might not be precisely such 
 as they would wish to either accept or refuse. 
 I understand a proposed amendment to the 
 Constitution — which amendment, however, I 
 have not seen — has passed Congress, to the 
 effect that the Federal Government shall never 
 interfere with the domestic institutions of the 
 States, including that of persons held to ser- 
 vice. To avoid misconstruction of what I have 
 said, I depart from my purpose not to speak 
 of particular amendments so far as to say 
 that, holding such a provision to now be im- 
 plied constitutional law, I have no objection 
 to its being made express and irrevocable. 
 The chief magistrate derives all his author- 
 
58 LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 
 
 ity from the people, and they have con- 
 ferred none upon him to fix terms for the sep- 
 aration of the States. The people themselves 
 can do this also if they choose; but the execu- 
 tive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His 
 duty is to administer the present government, 
 as it came to his hands, and to transmit it, un- 
 impaired by him, to his successor. 
 
 Why should there not be a patient confi- 
 dence in the ultimate justice of the people? 
 Is there any better or equal hope in the world ? 
 In our present differences is either party with- 
 out faith of being in the right? If the Al- 
 mighty Ruler of Nations, with nis eternal 
 truth and justice, be on your side of the North, 
 or on yours of the South, that truth and justice 
 will surely prevail by the judgment of this 
 great tribunal of the American people. 
 
 By the frame of the government under 
 which we live, this same people have wisely 
 given their public servants but little power 
 for mischief; and have, with equal wisdom, 
 provided for the return of that little to their 
 own hands at very short intervals. While the 
 people retain their virtue and vigilance, no 
 administration, by any extreme of wickedness 
 or folly, can very seriously injure the govern- 
 ment in the short space of four years. 
 
 My countrymen, one and all, think calmly 
 and well upon this whole subject. Nothing 
 valuable can be lost by taking time. If there 
 be an object to hurry any of you in hot haste 
 to a step which you would never take deliber- 
 
LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS 59 
 
 ately, that object will be frustrated by taking 
 time; but no good object can be frustrated by 
 it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied, still 
 have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on 
 the sensitive point, the laws of your own fram- 
 ing under it; while the new administration will 
 have no immediate power, if it would, to 
 change either. If it were admitted that you 
 who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the 
 dispute, there still is no single good reason 
 for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriot- 
 ism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him 
 who has never yet forsaken this favored land, 
 are still competent to adjust in the best way 
 all our present difficulty. 
 
 In your hands, my dissatified fellow coun- 
 trymen, and not in mine, is the momentous 
 issue of civil war. The government will not 
 assail you. You can have no conflict without 
 being yourselves the aggressors. You have 
 no oath registered in heaven to destroy the 
 government, while I shall have the most sol- 
 emn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it." 
 
 I am loath to close. We are not enemies, 
 but friends. We must not be enemies. 
 Though passion may have strained, it must 
 not break our bonds of affection. The mys- 
 tic chords of memory, stretching from every 
 battle-field and patriot grave to every living 
 heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, 
 will yet swell the chorus of the Union when 
 again touched, as surely they will be, by the 
 better angels of our nature. 
 
Other Titles in Pocket Series 
 
 1 Rubaiyat of Omar 
 Khayyam. 
 
 2 Oscar Wilde's Ballad 
 of Reading Jail. 
 
 8 Eighteen Little Essays. 
 "Voltaire. 
 
 6 De Maupassant's Stories 
 
 7 A Liberal Education. 
 Thomas Huxley. 
 
 6 Lady Windermere's 
 Fan. Oscar Wilde. 
 
 9 Great English Poems. 
 
 10 Shelley. Francis 
 Thompson. 
 
 11 Debate on Religion be- 
 tween John Haynes 
 Holmes and George 
 Bowne. 
 
 l2.Poe's Tales. 
 
 13 Is Free Will a Fact or 
 
 a Fallacy? Debate. 
 14. What Every Girl 
 
 Should Know. Mrs. 
 
 Sanger. 
 
 16 Balzac's Stories. 
 
 17 On Walking. Thoreau. 
 
 18 Idle Thoughts of an 
 Idle Fellow. Jerome. 
 
 19 Nietzsche: Who He 
 Was and What He 
 Stood For. 
 
 80 Let's Laugh. Nasby. 
 
 81 Carmen. Merimee. 
 24 The Kiss and Other 
 
 Stories. Anton Chekhov 
 E5 Rhyming Uictionary. 
 26 On Going to Church. 
 
 Bernard Shaw. 
 
 27 Last Days of a Con- 
 demned Man. Hugo. 
 
 28 Toleration. Voltaire. 
 
 29 Dreams. Schreiner. 
 
 30 What Life Means to 
 Me. Jack London. 
 
 81 Pelleas and Melisande 
 
 Maeterlinck. 
 32 Poe's Poems. 
 
 83 Brann: Smasher of 
 Shams. 
 
 84 Case for Birth Control 
 35 Maxims of La 
 
 Rochefoucauld. 
 86 Soul of Man Under 
 Socialism. Oscar 
 Wilde. 
 
 37 Dream of John Ball 
 William Morris. 
 
 38 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. 
 Hyde. Stevenson. 
 
 89 Did Jesus Ever Live ? 
 Debate. 
 
 40 House and the Brain 
 Bulwer Lytton. 
 
 41 Christmas Carol. 
 Dickens. 
 
 42 From Monkey to Man 
 
 43 Marriage and Divorce 
 Debate by Horace 
 Greeley and Robert 
 Owen. 
 
 44 Aesop's Fables. 
 
 45 Tolstoi's Stories. 
 
 46 Salome. Oscar Wilde. 
 
 47 He Renounced the 
 Faith. Jack London. 
 
48 Bacon's Essays. 
 
 49 Three Lectures on 
 Evolution. Haeckel. 
 
 50 Common Sense. 
 Thomas Paine. 
 
 61 Bruno: His Life and 
 Martyrdom. 
 
 52 Voltaire. Victor Hugo. 
 
 53 Insects and Men ; In- 
 stinct and Reason. 
 Clarence Darrow. 
 
 64 Importance of Being 
 Earnest. Oscar Wilde. 
 
 66 Wisdom of Ingersoll. 
 
 67 Rip Van Winkle. 
 
 58 Boccaccio's Stories. 
 
 59 Epigrams of Wit. 
 66 Emerson's Essay on 
 
 Love- 
 
 61 Tolstoi's Essays. 
 
 62 Schopenhauer's Essays. 
 66 Meditations of Marcus 
 
 Aurelius. 
 
 68 Shakespeare's Sonnets. 
 
 70 Lamb's Essays. 
 
 71 Poems of Evolution, 
 Anthology. 
 
 72 Color of Life. E. Hal- 
 deman-Julius. 
 
 78 Whitman's Poems. 
 
 74 On Threshold of Sex. 
 
 75 The Choice of Books. 
 Carlyle. 
 
 76 The Prince of Peace. 
 Bryan. 
 
 78 How to Be an Orator. 
 
 John P. Altgeld. 
 76 Enoch Arden. 
 
 86 Pillars of Society. 
 Ibsen. 
 
 81 Oare of the Baby. 
 
 82 Common Faults in 
 
 Writing English. 
 
 83 Marriage: Its i.'ast. 
 Present and Future. 
 Besant. 
 
 84 Love Letters of a 
 Portuguese Nun. 
 
 85 Attack on the Mill. 
 Zola. 
 
 86 On Reading. Georg 
 Brandes. 
 
 87 Love: An Essay. 
 Montaigne. 
 
 88 Vindication of Thomas 
 Paine. Ingersoll. 
 
 89 Love Letters of Men 
 and Women of Genius. 
 
 91 Manhood: The Facts 
 of Life Presented to 
 Men. 
 
 92 Hypnotism Made Plain 
 
 93 How to Live 100 Yean 
 
 94 Trial and D»nth of 
 Socrates. 
 
 95 Confessions of an 
 Opium Eater. De 
 Quincey. 
 
 96 Dialogues of Plato. 
 
 98 How to Love. 
 
 99 Tartuffe. Molien. 
 
 100 The Red Laugh. 
 Andreyev. 
 
 101 Thoughts of Paseai. 
 
 102 Tales of Sherlock 
 Holmes. 
 
 103 Pocket Theology. 
 Voltaire. 
 
 104 Battle of Waterloo. 
 Hugo. 
 
 105 Seven That Were 
 Hanged. Andreyev. 
 
 106 Thoughts and Aphor- 
 isms. Geo. Sand. 
 
 107 How to Strengthen 
 Mind and 
 
It8 How to Devolop a 
 Healthy Mind. 
 
 109 How to Develop a 
 Strong Will. 
 
 110 How to Develop a 
 Magnetic Personality. 
 
 111 How to Attract 
 Friends. 
 
 112 How to Be a Leader 
 of Others. 
 
 113 Proverbs of England. 
 
 114 Proverbs of France. 
 
 115 Proverbs of Japan. 
 
 116 Proverbs of China. 
 
 117 Proverbs of Italy. 
 
 118 Proverbs of Russia. 
 
 119 Proverbs of Ireland. 
 
 120 Proverbs of Spain. 
 
 121 Proverbs of Arabia. 
 
 122 Debate on Spiritual- 
 ism. Conan Doyle and 
 Joseph McCabe. 
 
 123 Vegetarianism. Debate 
 
 125 War Speeches of 
 Woodrow Wilson. 
 
 126 History of Rome. A. 
 F. Giles. 
 
 127 What Expectant Moth- 
 ers Should Know. 
 
 • 128 Julius Caesar: Who I 
 He Was and What He I 
 Accomplished. 
 129 Rome or Reason. 
 
 Debate. Ingersoll and 
 Manning. 
 ISO Controversy on Chris- 
 tianity. Debate. In- 
 gersoll and Gladstone. 
 
 131 Redemption. Tolstoi. 
 
 182 Foundations of Re- 
 ligion. 
 
 183 Principles of Elec- 
 tricity. 
 
 185 Socialism for Million- 
 aires. G. B. Shaw. 
 
 186 Child Training. 
 
 }g g ome Nursing. 
 
 138 Studies in Pessimiaai. 
 
 ,,, Schopenhauer. 
 
 141 Would Practice of 
 Christ's Teachings 
 Make for Social Pros- 
 no £ess? Debate. 
 
 142 Bismarck and the Ger- 
 man Empire. 
 
 143 Pope Leo's Encyclical 
 on Socialism. 
 
 144 Was Poe Immoral? 
 
 us ? ra ? It Whitman. 
 
 145 Great Ghost Stories. 
 
 146 Snowbound. Whittier. 
 
 147 Cromwell and His 
 Times. 
 
 148 Strength of the Stroag 
 Jack London. 
 
 151 Man Who Would Be 
 ,r« Kms \ K ipKng. 
 
 152 Foundations of the 
 Labor Movement. 
 Wendell Phillips. 
 
 . } It Epigrams of Ibsen. 
 \ll ¥ a * ims - Napoleon, 
 lob Andersen s Fairv 
 
 Tales. 
 157 Marx vs. Tolstoi. 
 
 I n A . llce , in Wonderland. 
 
 159 Lincoln and the 
 I ,_. Working Class. 
 
 160 Ingersoll's Lecture on 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 161 Country of the Blind. 
 H. G. Wells. 
 
 162 Karl Marx and the 
 American . Civil War. 
 
 163 Sex Life in Greece 
 and Rome. 
 
 164 Michael Angelo's 
 Sonnets. 
 
 165 Discovery of the 
 Future. H. G. Wella. 
 
166 English as She Is 
 Spoke. Mark Twain. 
 
 167 Rules of Health. 
 Plutarch. 
 
 168 Epigrams of Oscar 
 Wilde. 
 
 169 Church Property Be 
 Taxed ? Debate. 
 
 171 Has Life Any Mean- 
 ing ? Debate. 
 
 172 Evolution of Love. 
 Ellen Key. 
 
 178 Vision of Sir Launfal. 
 Lowell. # 
 
 174 Free Speech Trial of 
 William Penn. 
 
 175 Science of History. 
 Froude. , 
 
 176 Four Essays. Havelock 
 Ellis. 
 
 177 Subjection of Women. 
 John Stuart Mill. 
 
 178 One of Cleopatra's 
 Nights. Gautier. 
 
 179 Constitution of League 
 of Nations. 
 
 180 Epigrams of Bernard 
 Shaw. 
 
 181 Epigrams of Thoreau. 
 188 Realism in Art and 
 
 Literature. Darrow. 
 184 Primitive Beliefs. 
 
 H. M. Tichenor. 
 186 History of Printing. 
 
 Disraeli. 
 186 How I Wrote "The 
 
 Raven." Poe. 
 | 187 Whistler's Humor. 
 188 How Voltaire Fooled 
 
 Priest and King. 
 
 Clarence Darrow. 
 1ft* Eugenics. Havelock 
 
 Ellis. 
 1*0 Psycho- Analysis — 
 
 The Key to Human 
 
 Behavior. Fielding. 
 
 191 Evolution vs. Religiea, 
 Balmforth 
 
 192 Book of Synonym*. 
 196 How to Keep Well. 
 
 196 The Marquise. 
 George Sand. 
 
 197 Witticisms and Rene*, 
 tions. De Sevigne. 
 
 198 Majesty of Justice. 
 Anatole France. 
 
 200 Ignorant Philosopher. 
 Voltaire. 
 
 201 Satan and the Saints. 
 H. M. Tichenor. 
 
 202 Survival of the Fittest. 
 H. M. Tichenor. 
 
 203 Rights of Women. 
 Havelock Ellis. 
 
 204 Sun Worship and 
 Later Beliefs. 
 
 H. M. Tichenor. 
 
 205 Artemus Ward, His 
 Book. 
 
 206 Debate on Capitalism 
 vs. Socialism. Selfer- 
 man and Nearing. 
 
 207 Olympian Gods. 
 H. M. Tichenor. 
 
 208 Debate on Birth Con- 
 trol. Mrs. Sanger and 
 Winter Russell. 
 
 209 Aspects of Birth Con- 
 trol. Medical, Moral, 
 Sociological. Dr. Knopf 
 
 210 The Stoic Philosophy. 
 Prof. Gilbert Murray. 
 
 211 Idea of God in Natnre. 
 John Stuart Mill. 
 
 212 Life and Character. 
 218 Lecture on Lincoln. 
 
 Robt. G. IngersoD. 
 
 214 Speeches of Lincoln. 
 
 215 The Miraculous Re- 
 venge. Bernard Shaw. 
 
 216 Wit of Heinrich Heine. 
 George Bitot. 
 
218 Four Essays. 
 Jean Jaures. 
 
 219 The Human Tragedy. 
 Anatoie France. 
 
 220 Essays on the New 
 Testament. Robert 
 Blatchford. 
 
 221 Women, and Four 
 Other Essays. Maurice 
 Maeterlinck. 
 
 222 The Vampire and 
 Other Poems. Rudyard 
 Kipling. 
 
 223 Essays on Swinburne. 
 Sir Arthur Quiller- 
 Couch. 
 
 W4 God: The Known and 
 Unknown. Samuel 
 Butler 
 
 225 On a Certain Conde- 
 scension in Foreigners. 
 Jas. Russell Lowell. 
 
 226 Professor Bernhardi : 
 Schnitzler. 
 
 227 Keats, the Man, His 
 Work and His Friends. 
 
 228 Aphorisms of Thomas 
 Huxley. 
 
 229 Diderot. Havelock Ellis 
 
 230 The Fleece of Gold. 
 Theophile Gautier. 
 
 231 Eight Humorous 
 Sketches. Samuel 
 Clemens (Mark 
 Twain) . 
 
 232 The Three Strangers. 
 Thos. Hardy. 
 
 283 Thoughts on Litera- 
 ture and Art. Goethe. 
 
 234 McNeal-Sinclair 
 Debate on Socialism. 
 
 235 Five Essays. Gilbert 
 K. Chesterton. 
 
 236 The State and Heart 
 Affairs of King 
 Henry VHI. 
 
 237 Poems in Prose. 
 Baudelaire. 
 
 238 Reflections 6n Modem 
 Science. Huxley. 
 
 239 Twenty-Six Men and 
 a Girl, and Other 
 Tales. Maxim Gorki. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 973.7L63B8SCH3A C001 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS G 
 
 3 0112 031800565